The year of the Tiger is here, and the 15-day celebrations have begun. Millions of people celebrate The Lunar New Year and is one of the largest festivities for many East and South East Asian communities.

Traditionally the celebration involves good food, impressive fireworks to scare away any evil spirits for the coming months and classic red lanterns to mark the occasion.

Like any celebration, food plays a major part in the Chinese New Year festival and there are dishes that are considered lucky and unlucky.pexels-photo-5409015

According to ancient legend, the number of dumplings you eat during the Chinese New Year predicts the amount of money you’ll make in the upcoming year (the more, the better). While pork is the most common dumpling filling, you can also opt for shrimp, chicken or vegetables. It’s completely forbidden to arrange dumplings in circles: dumplings have to be arranged in lines as a symbol of life actually going somewhere.

pexels-photo-2294477Oranges, kumquats, and tangerines are common Chinese New Year gifts because they’re believed to bring good luck and happiness. The Chinese words for “orange” and “tangerine” closely resemble the words for “luck” and “wealth.” The gold color of these fruits also symbolises prosperity.

To celebrate Chinese New Year, here at Dalziel Ingredients we have created a recipe which brings good luck as well as delivering on flavour. Ginger and garlic soup, topped with Szechuan peppercorn chicken steamed dim sum is the perfect celebratory dish.

We look forward to showcasing our range of flavour concepts for Snackex later this year, including a Chinese flavour that will be sure to get your taste buds tingling!

For our full Chinese New Year flavour concepts and ideas, contact our team.

For media enquiries, please email: mary.niven@dalziel.co.uk